OSC Colloquium: Dr. Kang-Kuen Ni, "Building single molecules atom-by-atom in optical tweezers"

Abstract(s): 

Optical tweezers, made from tightly focused laser beams are versatile tools to manipulate small particles for studies in physics, chemistry, and biology. In this talk I will focus on an application where we use tweezers to grab single atoms from a laser-cooled ensemble and assemble pairs of single atoms into molecules with full quantum state control. This work goes beyond the usual paradigm of chemical reactions that proceed via stochastic encounters between reactants, to a single, controlled reaction of exactly two atoms. We aim to use these single molecules as building blocks for quantum simulators and computers. 

Speaker Bio(s):

Kang-Kuen Ni is a Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Harvard University. Her group pursues new approaches to create and gain quantum control of ultra-cold molecules for studies of chemical reactions, quantum information processing, and quantum many-body physics. Notable recent achievements include building single molecules in movable optical tweezers, studying collisions in a new paradigm with exactly known numbers of collision partners and products, theoretical investigation of a novel quantum computing scheme with molecules, and probing, steering, and controlling ultra-cold bimolecular chemical reactions from reactants through intermediates to products with quantum state resolutions.